Mold Part 4

Got a new sheet of MDF today. Started re-making my mold. After talking with the guys from the OLF (thanks guys), I decided to take a different approach for this mold.
1. I created a template from a piece of Lexan. This time though I made the template for the outside of the guitar instead of the inside. Once I had the template made I filed and sanded it smooth. 2. I used my Ryobi circular saw to cut out all 8 pieces forthe mold. Once I had them cut out I stacked them up.
3. The pieces of the mold need to be aligned for later.The OLF guys recommended using a dowel to so they can be taken apart and re-assembled. Unfortunately, I only have a cordless drill. It would be difficult to get the hole for the dowel perpendicular. I have a dowel jig, but the problem is that the mold was too big to use the jig. So, I improvised. I used the dowel jig to drill a hole in a scrap 2x4. Then I took the 2x4 and placed it where I wanted my dowel on the mold. It worked out pretty well.
3.5 I cut the 5/16" dowels and slid them into place. This is where lesson learned #2 was applied. Now it is time to put the template on and trace out the pattern. Wait... what is that! DOH! I forgot to clamp the template to the mold and drill through that too. Now what? I decided to clamp the template to the mold and drill through the template. Unfortunately, since the hole was already drilled into the mold there was no backing support for the Lexan. The first hole went pretty well, but the second chipped pretty bad. All in all I got it working.
4. Now I have my template ready. I traced the template on each layer of the mold. When that was completed, off to the bandsaw!
5. I tried to stay about 1/16" - 1/8" on the inside of my line.That way I can clean it up with the router later. The process went much quicker than trying to cut all 4 layers at once.
6. It is time for routing! I bought a template bit for my router. The bit has a 1/4" on the shaft with a 1" under it. The idea was to trace the template with the bit and clean up the mold one layer at a time. It ALMOST worked.
6.5 Turns out there is a about a 1/16" to an 1/8" gap between the bearing and the blade of the bit. That would not have been a problem, except that the Lexan is only 1/8" thick. Because of that gap there is a lip that is left at the top each piece of the layer. I had to find some way to raise the Lexan 1/8" and still let the bit track properly. I discussed it with Chicky, and we came up with a solution. I just so happened to have a scrap of 1/8" Red Oak plywood. I traced the template onto the ply and cut it out on the bandsaw. I drilled out the dowel holes and I was in business.
7. I routed the first layer using my template and red oak ply spacer. When I had the first layer complete I used it as my template for the other layers.
At this point I repeated most of the previous steps for the second half of the mold. Now, on to glue up!
Notice the two little grooves on the inside? Look at the picture on the right, there are two router grooves where the template shifted right at the end of a cut. They are extremely shallow and if I decide they will be detrimental to the mold I will fill them and sand smooth.
8. I set out the layers for the first half of the mold. I spread Titebond II over top of the 4th layer and on the bottom of the 3rd layer and then pressed them together. I repeated the process for the remaining layers. I then drove the dowels into the mold and made sure the dowel stuck out on both sides. I clamped the mold and set it aside for a while. Titebond II instructs you to wait a minimum of 30 minutes before unclamping. Since I only have enough clamps to clamp up 1 mold I had some time to kill...